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Continuing Legal Education Programs

The Human Rights Institute builds the capacity of the BHRH Lawyers’ Network membership through an annual continuing legal education program focused on human rights in the United States. Past trainings have focused on The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the human rights to housing in the United States; advocating for human rights in state courts; ethics and domestic human rights lawyering; and engaging with U.N. human rights mechanisms. The CLE trainings are open to all.

**SAVE THE DATE**

The 2015 Human Rights in the U.S. CLE is scheduled for June 12, 2015. This year's program will focus on the Inter-American Human Rights System. A detailed agenda and registration information will be posted on this page as the date approaches.

Past CLE Programs

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: 20 Years After US Ratification

The 2014 Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network annual CLE on domestic human rights focused on the 20th anniversary of U.S. ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The full day symposium brought together over 100 lawyers and advocates to discuss the history of the treaty and explore strategies for engaging with the U.S. government and the CERD Committee around the treaty body's August 2014 review of U.S. compliance.

Bringing Economic & Social Rights Home: The Right to Adequate Housing in the U.S.

Friday April 26, 2013Skadden, Arps

Co-sponsored by:Columbia Law School's Human Rights InstituteNational Law Center on Homelessness and PovertyNortheastern Law School's Program on Human Rights & the Global Economy

U.S. lawyers are increasingly engaging international human rights law and strategies in their domestic social justice advocacy efforts. A strength of the human rights framework is its ability to address the intersection of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Yet pursuit of economic and social rights presents special challenges in the U.S. legal context. This symposium explores strategies for advancing economic and social rights advocacy in the U.S., focusing in particular on the right to housing. Participants will examine legal developments pertaining to the right to housing and related rights, both internationally and in the U.S. And, drawing on international human rights, participants will explore promising approaches to establishing the right to housing in U.S. courts and through other advocacy efforts.

The U.S. & the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: 20 Years After Ratification

Friday March 16, 2012Skadden, Arps

The United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1992. As the U.S. government and civil society prepare for the fourth periodic review of the United States’ compliance with its obligations under the covenant, this program will examine the history and impact of U.S. ratification and engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Committee, which monitors its compliance with the covenant, and will look ahead at the possibilities for ensuring U.S. accountability for its human rights commitments.

Engaging with UN Human Rights Mechanisms

This program explored strategies for U.S. lawyers to effectively engage with UN human rights mechanisms as a means of furthering domestic social justice advocacy efforts. Participants received a grounding in the international human rights system and mechanisms as well as an understanding of strategies for engagement with civil society and government and challenges of local implementation and follow-up.

This training explored the use of transnational standards in developing state law jurisprudence to protect economic and social rights such as health and housing, as well as non-litigation human rights legal strategies in advocating for economic justice.

The United States and the Inter-American Human Rights System

April 7, 2008Skadden, Arps

Co-sponsored by:Center for Justice and International LawAmerican Society for International Law

When advocacy in civil and human rights cases is unsuccessful in U.S. courts, lawyers sometimes turn to the Washington, D.C. based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) as an alternate forum to air their clients’ grievances. This CLE training focused on how this tribunal affects U.S.-based advocacy.

Comparative Foreign Law in US Courts & Advocacy

Over the past few terms, the Supreme Court and other U.S. courts have shown a growing interest in comparative foreign law arguments. This all day CLE program was designed for domestic public interest lawyers considering when and how to incorporate foreign sources into domestic litigation and advocacy. The program provided an overview of the Supreme Court’s use of foreign law, considered the controversy and debate around the use of such sources arguments, and examined case studies of legal strategies using foreign sources. The session concluded with a skill-building session on how to conduct foreign law research.

Experts on the use of foreign legal sources led the sessions, providing insight into judicial attitudes towards such sources and strategic considerations in their use in different U.S. forums. Click here to view the conference agenda.